USVI-On-Line

Has anyone rented from Courtesy car rental?
How about any other recommendations.

No experience with Courtesy, but have rented for 4 years from Conrad Sutton. Nice cars and good location.

Although the past 2 years and in 24 days when we return, we have rented the car on St Thomas and took the car barge over.

We have always rented from St. John Car Rental, ( I know some on the forum have had problems with them) but we have NEVER had a problem. We're renting again with them in April. They allow you to park in their lot when you're in Cruz Bay which is nice because parking is at at a premium.

We rented from Courtesy last May & they were fantastic....super professional, friendly & so willing to work with us. We're going again in May, 2009 & are renting from them again. Same great service & helpful people.

We used Courtesy in May '07 & will be using them again this May. We were always able to park in their lot, which was a great help. I know they are a little farther away now, but I think the parking will still be a benefit. The tires on our Ford Escape were a bit worn, but we didn't have any problems. They picked us up at the ferry dock & dropped us off at the end of the week.

We have always used L&L Jeep rental (www.bookajeep.com). They have always been competitive with their price, great vehicles and Levi and Kurt have always been nice to work with. No lot in town but we usually visit in the off season. No big problem parking.

We rent from St. John car rental and have not had a problem.

BigCheez said that they are renting the car on St. Thomas vs St. John. I have read this other places too. Some follow up questions for the group.

1. Is it due to price differences?
2. Is it because food & bev is so much more in St. John?
3. Time to get to ferry for cars vs just people?
4. how often does the car ferry run vs people ferry only?

Thanks.

chucks wrote:BigCheez said that they are renting the car on St. Thomas vs St. John. I have read this other places too. Some follow up questions for the group.

1. Is it due to price differences?
2. Is it because food & bev is so much more in St. John?
3. Time to get to ferry for cars vs just people?
4. how often does the car ferry run vs people ferry only?

Thanks.

We rented on STT the last trip. It was a little cheaper per day than when we rented from St. John Car Rental the year before.

One benefit is you only load and unload your bags one time each direction.

It also enabled us to stop at Cost-U-Less and stock up on some things for our 10 day stay.

The car barges don't run as often as the people ferries do, but we were on island time anyway.

It was nice to be "hitting the road" as soon as the barge made landfall rather than having to transact the car rental before heading to the villa.

We did have a flat tire (twice actually) that we had to deal with that wasn't as easy as just calling the rental company to come and fix it (we naturally did not have a flat when we rented on STJ so I don't really know how much trouble that would have saved us.)

It's largely a matter of preference. Now that I've rented on STT and was able to manage getting to and from where we needed to be, I'd probably opt for that again.

Thanks Steve. Sounds like the flat tire issue could be a problem especially if since I will have a 6 month old kid with me. Dealing with the kid is enough let alone a flat tire. Do the St. Thomas rental places not help and you are on your own on ST. John?

When I had the flat tires the spare was in good shape so I just changed it. Had I rented on STJ the company may have sent someone out to do that for me, but I don't know if I'd have wanted to wait around for them to get there when I am perfectly capable of changing it myself.

Where there's a difference is what happens next. I'd imagine that if I'd have rented on STJ I could have driven to the rental office and swapped the flat for a new spare. Since I didn't want to take the time and expense to take the car barge back to STT, drive to Charlotte Amalie and do the swap, I took the flat to the gas station in Cruz Bay and had them fix it for six bucks. I did drive with no spare until they got around to fixing it, and I don't know what I'd have done if I got another flat just then.

Where is Courtesy located and is there usually parking available in their lot?

We always rent from Kurt & Levi with L&L too but had to go with Courtesy cause they didn't have a bigger vehicle available for us this year. I'm feeling disloyal.

chucks said " Is it because food & bev is so much more in St. John?"
Speaking for "BEV"...she's WAAAAY more in St. John!

Bevm.... good one. I could take it to the next level, but no need to get tossed off the site on my 1st day of posting.

Don't worry chucks. You won't get tossed off but you will get humiliated...Not by me though!